14-02-2025
Bird flu fears have backyard chicken coop owners on edge for what's next
On her picturesque farm in the suburbs of Chicago, Kimberly Henny is used to having visitors drop by to snap up fresh eggs, honey and vegetables. But as concerns over bird flu ripple across the country, Henny and her family are now accustomed to chasing away uninvited guests — the Canadian geese and other migratory birds that like to gather on the golf course next door.
Henny, 44, said she and her husband spot the geese through the window and can only pray they pass by their small-scale 'hobby' farm. She's worried that geese and other wild waterfowl carrying highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, could infect her free-range chickens and wipe out the flock — and the economic tentpole of her family's small operation.
